I'm sorry you had a bad experience Gratch. FWIW, they absolutely do take those calls seriously. In fact, they have recently become a major part of our store rankings. I honestly believe that your complaint will have an impact, for whatever consolation that is to you.

I should point out here that I'm certainly not out for the managers head. I just think he needs to know the impact of his customer service, or lack thereof. Heck, up until the last 6-8 months, I would have defended that store to the death. Unfortunately, their general service level has gone completely in the tank since then and I'm no longer willing to deal with it.

I dont see what the big deal is here. Uh oh, someone did their job the way they have been told to do it. Just imagine if you were one of the people that pre-ordered a year ago and you came in to get demo but they had already given it to someone else. You probably would have come to the forum made the same thread title just changed the context of the message a bit. I dont really see how Gamestop is at fault for this.

I was starting to wonder if I was the only one who thought this. Other people had rights to those demos. I am trying to figure out why Gratch felt his need was more important.

If he had said, "We only have 2 demos left, we've contacted both the people who pre-iordered them, and we're expecting them in to pick it up.", I wiould have had absolutely zeio problem with it. However, his attitude was "I've got a bunch here and most likely have some extras, but you haven't done anything to deserve one.". It's the same problem I have when they've got a massive stack of release-day games sitting there, but won't sell you one unless you beg and plead for it.

Besides, I was there ready to give them $50 for the game. While it's ultimately their perogative in the end, good business practice says you take care of the customer that is handing you $50 over the one that might remember to come in and pick it up from their year old pre-order. Especially the one that tells you there's a problem and they might not come back.

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He personally has aboslutely no stake in whether you shop there again or not.

And herein lies the entire problem. This store used to care. They used to give a shit. And they used to take care of their customers to make sure they come back. If I don't care about anything more than employees just being civil, then I'll go somewhere more convenient. I always made it a point to hit this Gamestop, however, because they were better than the faceless Best Buy or Circuit City. They're not anymore, so I won't make any effort to give them my money.

I dont see what the big deal is here. Uh oh, someone did their job the way they have been told to do it. Just imagine if you were one of the people that pre-ordered a year ago and you came in to get demo but they had already given it to someone else. You probably would have come to the forum made the same thread title just changed the context of the message a bit. I dont really see how Gamestop is at fault for this.

It's all about taking care of your customers. The guy told me they had "quite a few" copies of the demo there. I highly doubt that every one of these supposed year-old pre-orders were going to come into the store this exact night to pick it up. In a chain as large as Gamestop, even if they gave me the demo tonight, I'm sure they could get that one copy replenished within a day or two. Hell, have one of the other stores drop one off on their way in tomorrow if that's what it takes. I even told the guy straight up that I would pay him $50 for the game tonight if he'd give me the demo. Instead, he chose to lose that guaranteed sale on the off chance that they got some freakish rush on their demo discs from these ancient pre-orders.

They guy was either hoarding copies for his buddies, or was simply being an ass. I'm not sure which it was.

I'm not sure if they can get more copies of demos after an initial shipment. Maybe someone that works there can answer that for us. And if you could prove that he was hording them then I would agree with you 100%

In my line of work, we bend over backwards for our customers for even the little things. It means customer loyalty and repeat business.

Obviously I can't prove that he's hoarding them, just a feeling. He told me there were copies available at other stores. Had I been the manager, the customer gets my demo and I pick one up from the other store tomorrow on my way to work (when it's not rush hour traffic, it would probably only take 5-10 minutes to get there). That way I get a $50 sale, and the customer is happy. Win-Win. As it stands, the customer is frustrated & angry, and the store lost not only the sale on this game, but also a significant amount of money on future purchases. Lose-Lose.

I dont see what the big deal is here. Uh oh, someone did their job the way they have been told to do it. Just imagine if you were one of the people that pre-ordered a year ago and you came in to get demo but they had already given it to someone else. You probably would have come to the forum made the same thread title just changed the context of the message a bit. I dont really see how Gamestop is at fault for this.

It's all about taking care of your customers. The guy told me they had "quite a few" copies of the demo there. I highly doubt that every one of these supposed year-old pre-orders were going to come into the store this exact night to pick it up. In a chain as large as Gamestop, even if they gave me the demo tonight, I'm sure they could get that one copy replenished within a day or two. Hell, have one of the other stores drop one off on their way in tomorrow if that's what it takes. I even told the guy straight up that I would pay him $50 for the game tonight if he'd give me the demo. Instead, he chose to lose that guaranteed sale on the off chance that they got some freakish rush on their demo discs from these ancient pre-orders.

They guy was either hoarding copies for his buddies, or was simply being an ass. I'm not sure which it was.

Hit the gamestop website, write to them and demand to speak with the district manager directly. Tell him it isnt about the demo but simply about common courtesy. You feel slighted and you demand satisfaction. When you meet him, slap him in the face with a glove for best effect.

Seriously, all but the glove would be my reaction.

E-mail has already been sent. It was a reworded version of my OP.

I honestly don't really want to talk to anyone live, becuase then I feel like I'm trying to get something out of it (which I'm not). I've worked in retail and found that those who complained the loudest ("I DEMAND satisfaction!!) were those we were the least likely to believe. I'd rather just send an e-mail and let them know there's a serious issue they need to address that is causing them to lose a significant chunk of business. If they want to contact me, they've got my address.

He was obviously just being a "Dick". Happens a lot in these stores, like the time the counter-jockey wasn't going to sell me 1701AD because I didn't preorder it. I gave him a pretty extreme look, and his manager said "Just sell the guy the damn game.". I mean, what in gods name is fucking wrong with a company that treats their customers like hostile entities?

Funny thing is, the underling standing next to him actually said a couple times, "Why don't we just give him the demo?". This guy was obviously trying to prove some sort of point. Apparently that I should have pre-ordered a year ago.

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I really hate to see companies go out of business, but the day Gamestopo shuts down will be a day of celebration for all.

I wouldn't go this far. I'd just really like to have my old Gamestop back instead of the hive of scum and villany that it's become.

I'm still wrapping my brain around someone pre-ordering God of War 2 a year in advance.

That's what I don't get. If this was a niche title, I can see how they would have some semi-legit leverage. But it's freaking God of War II. Everyone and their dog will have stacks of this on day 1! If you want my $50, give me the f-in demo or I'll find it at any one of a thousand other places!

Absolutely freaking outrageous. You were way too polite. I am about in your boat, although every once in a great while I will get somethign there. Suprisingly enough, the shittiness of best buy isn't even that bad compared to them when you factor in coupons.

I'm very non-confrontational anyways, so it was no biggie. I honestly think the jerk-off manager will be surprised to find out there was even an issue when (well, if) he gets the e-mail..

I’ve been a regular at my local Gamestop ever since it opened. They used to be friendly, knowledgeable, helpful, and since they had low turnover, I knew most of them on a first-name basis. For the past 3 years, I’ve purchased at least 1-2 games a month from them. However, over the past year since their manager left, they have gone steadily downhill. They’ve become rude, dismissive, overly pushy with pre-orders, and I basically just don’t like going there anymore. Tonight, however, was the final straw.

I really wanted to try out the God of War II demo, so I decided to stop by and pre-order the game. I knew I’d be buying the game anyways, so getting the demo would just be an added bonus. After standing at the register for a couple minutes while the counter jockeys ignored me and finished their conversation not 3 feet away, I finally piped in with a not-so-subtle “Ahem”. One of them managed to pry himself away and ask if he could help. When I said I wanted to pre-order God of War, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. Both he and the manager went into fanboy drool mode about how awesome the demo is and how excited they were to get the final game. So I said, “You’ve still got copies of the demo, right?”. The manager then proceeded to tell me that although they had quite a few demo copies left, they still had a few people that pre-ordered over a year ago that hadn’t yet picked up their demos, so they couldn’t give me one. I honestly thought he was kidding and started have a chuckling “Yeah right”.

Unfortunately, he was dead serious. He said that if he gave me a demo, then if one of these other people came in, he wouldn’t have one and they’d be pissed. I asked if it made any difference if I paid for the game in full. Nope. I told him that was the only reason I was going to pre-order. Still didn’t matter, but he did say that he would try to find one at another store for me (closest store would be at least a 25-45 minute trip this time of night). I jokingly asked if he expected every one of those old pre-orders to come in tonight and demand their demo. Didn’t matter. I finally told him that if they couldn’t give me a copy of the demo, I’d just go buy the game at the Best Buy around the corner from my office on release day. Didn’t phase him a bit.

When I turned to leave, I said, “You do know that you’re losing a $50 sale and probably my return business because of this, right?”. His reply was, “There’s nothing I can do about it.”. Well, me neither and you have now completely lost what was once a very loyal customer over a demo disc that probably cost 10 cents. Congratulations Gamestop.

EDIT: I was going to send a revised copy of this to them, so I went to their "tellgamestop.com" customer service site. Amusingly, they don't let you e-mail a complaint unless you have a receipt number. A receipt number I didn't get because the guy would give me a copy of the damn demo. This company is a complete joke.

I'd echo Kevin's thoughts, although from the little I've played, Syberia easily Trumps TLJ in the graphics department. The 2D backgrounds in TLJ are incredible, but the late-90's low-poly characters are pretty jarring.

In regards to the language, 95% of TLJ has no bad language at all, but there is one character that uses "fuck" at least 2-3 times per sentence. It's pretty lame and completely unnecessary to the story, but I guess they wanted to be edgy or something. Come to think of it, there's a character or two in Dreamfall that do the same thing.

Thanks Gratch! While I generally just hate adventure games, I think I am officially going to put TLJ on the backlog and try to play it this spring when I am more free-Syberia too!

Heh, you sound exactly like me. Prior to trying out Dreamfall, I hated adventure games and hadn't even glanced at the genre in years. As soon as I played it, however, I immediately went out and picked up both TLJ and Syberia. Haven't played much of Syberia yet (Final Fantasy VI got in the way), but the little I did see was pretty impressive.

I bought this for my dad for Christmas since he loves adventure games-he played for a few hours but seemed to lose interest but it looked interesting to me-worth playing alone, or should I try TLJ first?

I've finished both games in the last 2 months, and played Dreamfall first. It got me hooked, and I played through TLJ after the fact. While both games are great, Dreamfall makes a lot more sense if you're familiar with the characters and events of TLJ. There's many carryover characters and references to events that will leave you scratching your head if you're not familiar with them. I think Dreamfall would be much more enjoyable if you’ve played through TLJ first.

That being said, Dreamfall is a great game on it's own merits. Keep in mind that it is a slow starter and the controls take a bit of getting used to. I'd say it didn't really pick up until about the 3 hour mark. And while TLJ is probably a better game, it may be hard for some people to go back and play a game with graphics & interface from 1999. I also found that the puzzles make much more sense in Dreamfall, and TLJ is pretty much impossible without a detailed walkthrough. There’s lots of “strap the cellphone to the purple cat” type puzzles in TLJ.

If you’re interested, I’d be willing to part with my copy of TLJ (great game, but not really much replayability once it’s done). Just shoot me a PM.

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I think the plan is for two games- the episodic series which will be focused on the continuing the specific story and characters from Dreamfall. The MMO will probably be much larger in scope but still canon in the worlds of Stark and Arcadia.

Whew, that’s good to hear. I’ll just play the episodic stuff and skip the MMO entirely.

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Unfortunately the CD-ROM release of the 1st game won't install on many newer computers even after applying patches.

Strange, I played the CD-ROM version of Dreamfall on my fairly new XP system and it worked just fine. TLJ also played without a hitch.

Great news! Funcom just announced that the Dreamfall/TLJ story will continue! Episodic format and it's likely still a long ways off but nice to hear nonetheless.

I think the story heavy focus of the series is an excellent fit for episodic content model since the story and characters will not only create great cliffhangers but also just a genuine desire to see what happens next which certainly wasn't the case for something like Sin Episodes.

That’s awesome, great, fantastic news! Having recently finished The Longest Journey, I’m thrilled to hear that the story will be continuing.

Since the article mentions both, I am curious about whether this is going to be distributed on-line, or whether it will be an MMO. I have no problem with episodic, online delivery (a la the new Sam & Max games), but I hate MMO games with the white-hot passion of a thousand burning suns. TLJ/Dreamfall is more like a movie than a game, and since I loathe online gaming, the last thing I want to do is be required to play through it with other people. If does end up being an MMO, it will ultimately kill any interest I have in the series.

I still very much look forward to getting back to this later this year to work on the rest of the hunts/espers/etc. I think I had nearly 80 hours in by the time I finished the main story (I don't remember; might be more or less, but it was around that) and I still had a ton of sidequests and optional areas left to explore!

FFXII is right up there with FFVI for me as the cream of the crop from the FF franchise.

can you still do side quests and roam about after the main story is finished??

Nope. Once you enter the final dungeon, you're in for good. After the final cutscene & credit roll, you get kicked back to the load screen.

Had about an hour last night while futzing with Vista, and ended up just running around and grinding the cerobi steppe. While its not really the most efficient because of the flying creatures and low XP wolves/tigers, there are semi-rare wyrms that drop for 3600xp a pop, and multiplay that by 2 with the tippet and its awesome awesome XP even though they don't spawn that frequently.

IMO, those wyrms were the best enemies to grind on. There's at least 1 or 2 of them in each Cerobi Steppe zone. I'd clear them all out, save at the mid-zone save marker, then reload and start all over. I probably gained 15-20 levels on those guys alone!

My TV is decent (Hitachi 52" HDTV), but the bottom corner has a permanent 12" by 6" black smudge from when my cat barfed down the front of the screen. Does that count?

I would have killed that cat so fast and so viciously. Dear god.

LOL. Honest to god, I think it was the only time he's ever been on top of the TV. 3,000 square feet in the house, and he chooses that exact spot to hork. Just bad luck, I guess. Here's a picture of the damage (crappy camera phone is all I got):

It's not quite as dark now (this happened quite a while ago), but is still noticeable. Especially when there's a light colored image on screen. In the end, though, it's not that big a deal. The cat's much more important to me than the TV.

Excited here too. I've liked everything he's done, and can't wait for a new album. Actually haven't heard any of the leaked tracks yet, but they did play one of them live during their last tour with Bauhaus.

If you go the ninwiki I posted, you can download the songs there. Like I have mentioned, viral marketing at its best. Leaving thumbdrives with subtle hints and music in public rest rooms

Excited here too. I've liked everything he's done, and can't wait for a new album. Actually haven't heard any of the leaked tracks yet, but they did play one of them live during their last tour with Bauhaus.

Nada. In fact, I might be going into negative game buying status this week. Possibly selling my XBox 1 in order to get some cash towards either a 360 or PS3. Will still be a while before I break down and buy one (and I still don't know which one I want), but at least it's a start!

More Final Fantasy VI for me. I'm at 26 hours, and it looks like I'm about 3/4 of the way through, according to the walkthrough I'm using. Also started Planescape: Torment again, but decided I need to finish up FFVI before I really dig into it. Splitting time between RPG's is never a good thing for me.

Interesting that the site says it's being created for "worldwide theatrical release", but the director's blog says this:

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Dragonlance production is in full swing and everyone's working hard to make an on time delivery. Even though the DVD won't go on sale until Fall, we need to be finished in the Spring to allow time for mastering, pressing and distribution.

I'm cautiously optimistic at this point, and I'd love to see a sample of the artwork before I get too excited about it. The voice cast is fantastic, but from what I've seen of Toonz animation, their style just doesn't seem to fit the subject matter. I'm just worried that we'll end up with a cartoon version of the D&D movie.

EDIT: OK, so I missed the concept art on the site. Doesn't do much to quell my concerns, though. Something about it just seems...off. Reminds me too much of the Saturday morning D&D cartoon, but we'll see...

Uber-cool bit of trivia on this game. Apparently, Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, etc.) is doing the voice work for the monsters. Anyone familiar with him knows that this is a very, very good thing, as the guy can do absolutely ridiculous things with his voice.

I guess it is just human nature to want to see things fall from grace, especially things that you can't have or afford or whatever the reason is.

Bit of a stretch, don't you think? Poking fun at Sony for some of it's ridiculous marketing and PR gaffes has nothing to do with whether or not people can afford the system.

Sorry, but nearly everyone that pokes fun at the PS3 or says they are not getting one, ends with saying I can't spend $500 on it or it's too much or something along those lines. I don't see how $500 is all that much more than the $400 that the 360 costs and you get a lot more with it. I mean, if you can afford the 360, the extra $100 isn't going to break the bank, is it?

Y'know, being able to pay and being willing to pay are two very, very different things.